In message <[log in to unmask]>, Robert Brenchley
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>That's how it's done in the
>UK, where we have no significant queen breeding industry.
LOL..thank you VERY much...... I don't suppose the 2000+ I raise each
year, a lot of them for sale, as queens or heading new seasons nucleii,
counts. Of course relative to the USA larger breeders you are correct,
but against that we are a mere puddleduck of a country in the bee trade
but we also seem to have a disproportionate amount to say for ourselves.
> We still have to
>cope with people incessantly importing queens, as people in the US
>would have to
>cope with neighbours buying in queens.
I don't have a problem with this. There is a tendency, particularly
among the smaller entities in terms of colonies, to assume, for their
own reasons, that local = good, and far afield = bad. Over many years
experience I find this is often wrong. Many good genetics have come from
outside our shores, and the modified black bee prevalent today in many
parts is what it is because of outside genetics becoming incorporated
into the local strains over many many years. (In particular after IOW
disease) I also do not worry about my neighbours buying in
unsatisfactory stock, which HAS happened in large amounts, as this does
not last long in our harsh environment and plethora of diseases and
pests.
> But you've got to start somewhere,
>and I never cease to be surprised at the bees' capacity for maintaining a
>strain without too much outcrossing. I think mating with drones from the home
>apiary is a lot more important than we sometimes assume.
If the drones in the area are of similar colouration you probably don't
notice how much outcrossing goes on, even if the drone(s) involved are
of a very different type. If someone moves a few really yellow Italians
into the dark bee area you see some sporadic striping turn up in nearly
all the young queens in varying amounts. Visually you need a really
stark marker to show up what really is going on.
I know what you mean about strain stability though, and any fresh import
reverts to the local mean through the outcrossing to local drones over a
very few generations. Sadly here that tends to mean a loss of vigour as
well making it hard to build the real busters of colonies we need for
the heather, and we can only get round that by selecting only the best
of our own stock, plus adding a little bit of fresh genetics every few
years (newest lot are some lovely black bees, gentle and vigorous, from
the Baltic coast of Poland) and by not mating the virgins (other than
when requeening a colony by a conventional split/reunite) near the
apiary of their mother.
Willy nilly use of unsuited genetics does not work and such entities
usually don't hang around too long, and things get back to normal in a
relatively short time.
--
Murray McGregor
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